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Post Mortal Possession's Jake Talks of the Possessing Entity Inside their Music

Death metal twisters Post Mortal Possession have taken their influences of death metal both the old and new, twisting it altogether to combine something that is unique and true to their name and their take on the death metal genre. They have recently released a EP "Possessing Entity" with plans of more material and further plans in-store! Guitarist Jake Sewage discusses these matters.

1. What type of band are you?

Jake: We are a death metal band from Pittsburgh, PA.

2. Tell us the brief history of your band.

Jake: Three of us played together ten years ago in a band called “Dead By Dawn” and we decided to join up again. We recruited a guitarist from the band “Tyrant and Torrential Bleeding” that I (Jake) used to play with and also picked up the bassist from “Victims of Contagion”. Nick the drummer’s band “Enbludgeoned” had just broken up and my band “Torrential Bleeding” was on hiatus so it just worked out. Me, Nick and Ed our singer always worked good together in the past and when we started playing together again we pretty much picked up where we left off over 10 years ago. Everything fell into place pretty quick.

3. Where did the name Post Mortal Possession, come into the picture for your band, what does it mean if anything?

Jake: The name means simply being possessed after death, like a zombie. Sounded cool when we found the name so we just went with it. Originally we were going to call the band “Arkaik Wrath” but Post Mortal Possession ended up winning the vote.

4. Who are your musical and non-musical influences?

Jake: There are so many influences that its hard to just name a few. I guess our main influences would be bands like Cannibal Corpse, Gorgasm, Suffocation, Decapitated, Dying Fetus, Gorot, Deicide, Severed Savior, Aeon, Deeds of Flesh, Flesh Consumed, Fallujah, Hideous Divinity, Morbid Angel, etc there are so many I could go on forever.

5. Who writes the songs, what are they about?

Jake: Ed writes almost all of the lyrics with exception of a few lines that I gave him ideas for. He writes songs about historical events such as WW2 and the witch trials that took place in Salem. He also writes about infamous serial killers such as Ed Gein, torture by crucifixion, human organ harvesting, possession of course and many other sinister topics that interest us and hopefully the people that get our music. He does a good job of changing it up so that not every song is about pointless murder although we have those kinds of songs as well.

6. What's your take on the EP "Possessing Entity" as a whole?

Jake: For a first release we are pretty proud of how it turned out. Shane Mayer of Shane Brutal Studios did an excellent job recording us and we feel he projected what we were going for well. So far we have been getting nothing but positive reviews on the EP. We are looking forward to our next release sometime later on this year.

7. What's your favorite song on the EP right now?

Jake: My favorite song on the EP has to be the opening track “The Harvest”. I think it is a good representation of what we are capable of as far as talent and song structure goes without losing any of the raw brutality we make sure to inject into our music every song we compose.

8. Is it important for you to paint visual pictures with the songs?

Jake: Absolutely it is. Ed writes his lyrics according to how the song sounds and has always wrote like that.

9. What would be the cinematic equivalent of the EP "Possessing Entity"?

Jake: Possessing entity is to death metal what Kill Bill is to cinema. Starts out crazy, then you have your plot and storyline that leads you to the climactic end where damn near everyone dies

10. What is your opinion on sites posting your guys material and other bands material?

Jake: Any site that wants to post our music and support us is doing nothing but helping us get our name out there so we do what we can to support them in return every chance we get. In the realm of death metal you need the help of others to get your music to the masses. No matter where our music ends up out there if someone wants a disc there’s only two places to get one right now, from our bandcamp page or from one of us at a show.

11. How do you guys feel about the classifications in music? Like those subgenres and how some get a negative rep. What's your take on that?

Jake: There are some that I like more than others and there are some that I plain just am not into, but I see nothing wrong with having subgenres because really it helps you know what you are getting before you listen to the band. When we write our music we try and use all of our influence to grab the attention of as many people as possible. We have death metal, tech death, brutal death metal, a little grind and a little black metal in our music and although some of those influences are subtle we feel that that is what makes our music different than the norm. Nobody wants to eat plain assed burgers every day haha. Gotta try some new flavors to keep thing interesting for us and the listener.

12. What is your opinion on the current state of music?

Jake: It can be hard especially in the death metal genre. Although there are all the social media outlets that are readily available to help bands get their music out there, the cyber world also has a negative effect on the music scene. A lot of bands can’t support themselves cause not as many people buy disks anymore. Once a bands CD is available to get for free somewhere their sales plummet so its just that much more important for us to not fall into that trap as an unsigned band. We see friends bands on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora and places like that and nobody makes any money. Less CDs sell so less people attend shows because of it. CDs promote shows. Shows and merch are the lifeline that allow bands to make the music and bring it to the people so its all connected.

13. What can the fans expect to see from you in the future?

Jake: We have shows coming up in PA as well as all surrounding states, a new album some time late this year should be expected as well as new shirts and merch designs.

14. Anything else you'd like to add or would like to say?

Jake: Yes. Thanks for having us on and thanks for your support as well everyone else that supports what we do. Without fans and friends there would be no band. Support Underground Death Metal!